Armed forces charity Mission Motorsport has set a new record for hypermiling an electric vehicle. A team of veterans drove a standard Renault Zoe for 475 miles on a single charge.
That equates to an average of 9.14 miles per kilowatt hour. It easily beats the previous record of 7.9 miles per kilowatt hour, which was set in France in 2018.
The record was set at Thruxton – the UK’s fastest racetrack – although the location is somewhat ironic, given the Zoe averaged 19mph throughout the record attempt in order to conserve range.
‘Smooth and consistent driving’
Mission Motorsport said the Zoe used was a standard roadgoing model, sourced from a dealer group, although it was fitted with tyres designed to extend the range of the vehicle. The EV tyres were sourced from Enso, which is aiming to develop rubber that is ‘sustainable without passing the cost onto the driver or the environment’.
A second Zoe – fitted with standard tyres – was also driven around the track at the same time and covered 424 miles before running out of power.
“Thruxton was the obvious choice for this record attempt, but despite being the UK’s fastest track, the key to hitting 475.4 miles was finding the optimum speed and smooth consistent driving,” said James Cameron, Mission Motorsport CEO.
“Backed by Enso EV tyre technology, we were certain we could break the record, but what we couldn’t have foreseen was the incredible difference in efficiency and distance with the Enso tyres.”
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